Hello and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast, a part of the Agora podcast network.

I am your host, Heather Tesco, and I'm a storyteller who makes history accessible because I believe it's a

pathway to understanding who we are, our place in the universe, and be more deeply in touch with

our own humanity. So in the Elizabethan era, there's luminous figures of Elizabeth I, Walter

Raleigh, William Shakespeare, and they naturally dominate. Yet, as with any historical epoch, the richness of

the period is not solely in its most famous characters, but also in the lives that wove the

sort of socio-political fabric of the time. And one such life, often overshadowed by grander narratives,

yet deeply interwoven into the very core of Elizabethan

politics, culture, and society, was Alice Spencer, Countess of Darby.

Before we get started, though, your reminder about TudorCon. So, it's too late to get tickets in

person. So sorry, you have missed that boat. But you can join us online through the magic

of the interwebs. The TudorCon streaming ticket is everything the TudorCon is from the comfort

of your own home. Three days of the talks all streamed plus the recordings and transcripts.

You're going to get a digital goodie bag with like e-books and art and all kinds of cool stuff.

You're going to get a tutor cook-along video with Brigito Webster who has a new book out called Eating with the Tudors.

You're going to get a special exclusive viewing of the King's Legacy musical by Michael Raddy.

And I'm very excited about that.

So he's making it available for us to watch online,

just for the streaming ticket folks. So there's a lot there, right? So go to Englandcast.com

slash TudorCon online to grab your ticket. And I also will say space is limited. I know it's like

the internet and it could be unlimited because it's

just space in a Zoom room. However, there's also going to be, you know, people who have questions

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